Share this with

Ander Herrera admitted he ‘understands’ Jose Mourinho’s meltdown during Manchester United’s pre-season tour after a fractious few weeks in the USA.

Mourinho has lashed out at his players, a lack of transfers and Manchester United officials during a testing pre-season where he has been starved of his key stars.

He is currently without 17 first-team players, with nine injured and eight still yet to return from the World Cup, and has grown increasingly frustrated amid a series of miserable results.

Herrera, who is one of the few senior squad members on the tour, confessed that the tour had not gone to plan and he can see why his manager is so tetchy.

‘I think Manchester United is suffering the most because they have the most players in the semi finals and the final,’ he said ahead of their tie with Real Madrid.

Mourinho has cut a frustrated figure (Picture: Getty)

‘The work we are not able to do now, we will do it in the last three or four days before the start of the season. But we are in this situation because we have so many good players – because we have fantastic players that have reached the semi final and the final.’

Advertisement

Advertisement

‘I agree with him (Mourinho) because it must be difficult for him to work with a group of players that maybe he is going to have 50 percent of them in the future.

‘You cannot really work tactically because you would think the guys that are working could be leaving or going on loan or they are going to the second team, so it’s difficult for him.

‘The only thing that we can say is that we want to be ready for the start of the season and I think the most intelligent thing would have been to postpone the start of the season by maybe one week.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video

‘But we have to accept what is coming and luckily we are going to have some players that are now on holiday, we are going to have them back one week before the start of the season so they can also help, and that’s it.’

Herrera claimed not to have seen any of his manager’s outbursts in the media but is adamant that squad morale has not been affected.

‘I haven’t watched the manager’s media stuff, I never do,’ he said. ‘I cannot talk about how he is with you guys, because I never see that.

‘I can say that with us he is very positive, he wants us to fight for the titles, he wants us to perform to our best, he wants us to work as hard as possible.

Manchester United's pre-season results & fixtures

Club America (Phoenix) 1-1

San Jose Earthquakes (San Jose) 1-3

AC Milan 1-1

Liverpool 1-4

Real Madrid – Aug 1

Bayern Munich (Munich) – Aug 5

‘But probably he’s not frustrated about the club or the market, he’s probably frustrated because he’s not able to work with the players that he’s going to have for the season. Other teams they are able to do that.

Advertisement

Advertisement

‘For example, we played against Liverpool and they had maybe 80 per cent of their squad ready, Milan maybe 90 per cent of their squad.

‘I can understand the manager and if I put myself in his position, I would be in the same situation. You want to fight for the titles, but you don’t have the team with you to work for it right now.

‘This is my fifth pre-season and it’s the most strange pre-season here so far. The most important thing is to get minutes and be ready for the game against Leicester. That’s all that matters.’